The second day of the ETC 2019 we woke up with high spirits, and were really looking forward to facing our round 3 opponents: the USA! What is impressive about the 9th age community is that thanks to Youtube, the T9A forum, twitter and the such we feel like we have a better idea of what the US gaming scene looks like than, say, the Austrian or the Spanish one. So it was exciting to get to play against the guys that we so often hear about in the Wargaming from the Balcony podcast and the such! To top it off, the US players have a reputation of being fun, fair and also very competent generals: reading this report you’ll find that they didn’t disappoint!

The gaming scene over at the US is quite different than ours, with a lot less MSU elements way chunkier units. That said, there were the exceptions to the rule (for example Ryan Capps’ Ogre Khansmonster mash). Nevertheless, my Dread Elves were looking at some very juicy targets in all possible games, with relatively little room for counterplay. Out of the eight possible matches the only one that I wasn’t looking forward to facing was the Vermin Swarm, due to the fact that it would be a match depending on how well my opponent rolled for his shooting more than anything else.

So I let our pairing master do his magic, and in the end I got to play against none other than the all-time top scorer of team USA, Chris @eggsPR . Now, for the uninitiated, Chris has the reputation of being a very strong player, and the list of his T9A-related accolades is so long that it would probably require a separate blog post to enumerate them. He has been playing Vampires for a long time and has attended several (all?) of the past ETCs. So going into the game I was looking forward to a hard-fought game. What I wasn’t expecting was what a fun and jovial opponent Chris would be. If I had to describe his player demeanor I’d say that you could get massacred by his army and would still be happy to have played him anyway! In any other tournament he’d get my “best opponent” vote, but here he’ll have to share it with another 3 players; that’s how lucky I was at this year’s ETC!

Chris had brought a Vampire list with several of the usual suspects, but also a very personal touch:

The most important parts of the list were the character duo, and namely their magic combination: Just like the first game opponent, the combination of Evocation and Occultism with extra range meant that the VC were not hard pressed at all to get into combat. His was a very stable list that could take its time, position the units correctly, claim objectives and gain points by sniping single models, small heavily-armoured units and expensive characters. Could you guess what I had brought in abundance?

The secondary objective for this round was Hold the Ground, which provided a challenge in itself: if I allowed the vampires to march onto the center of the board I’d have a really hard time getting them off the objective marker. The map we played on was Frontline Clash, and my adversary won the roll off for table sides and promptly picked the side with the hill right in the middle. That decision influenced my plan even further: if that swiftstride barrow unit got on top of the hill, it could easily zone a huge part of my list while sniping monsters away.

So I deployed my entire army to claim the initiative, with the Kraken at a central position, my general with corsairs a bit off to the one flank along with the Yema Acolytes and the other acolytes guarding the right flank with some help from the Blades of Nabh. The plan was to push forward aggressively, deny space to the vampires while also trying to perform an enveloping maneuver in the flanks. Chris replied to this by deploying centrally and deep: he used his Vampire Spawn wisely to cover one flank, and anchored the other with his Barrow Guard. In between, his Ghouls, Vampire Knights and chaff were ready to pop out of their hiding spot to threaten my monsters.

For magic, the Occultism Vampire took Hand of Glory, Breath of Corruption, Marked for Doom and the Grave Calls, while the Evocationwizard went for Touch of the Reaper, Spectral Blades, Whispers of the Veil and the Hereditary. I took my usual mix of Ice and Fire/Crippling Fatigue and Breath of Corruption/Grave Calls.
With the first turn secured, I rushed all of… [Read More]

After the success of the first round we found out that we’d be facing team Austria! That was great news, as in last year’s ETC we faced them in a very memorable round. The Austrians are not only great guys to play with, but they often come up with very personal and “against the current” lists. Fighting against such armies is refreshing and challenging at the same time.

This year it seems that real life had an impact on the roster of their team, with @Sir_Joker and @Clef being notable absences. While I was a bit sad that I wouldn’t get to chat about all things elves with the aforementioned gentlemen, we were more than compensated by the Norse Mercenaries (or should I say Varangian guard?) that brought even more craziness when it came to list building: a glimmering host of no less than 300 Highborn Elves and a battle-crazed mass of OnG (or Norse raiders as you’ll see) featuring almost 100 Gnashers, 100 Orcs and some change!

Who would be the mastermind behind these lists, you ask? Well, none other than @Herminard, of former Balance team fame and a Battleline enthusiast. The wonder of the internet is such that I've been actually chatting and playing with Hermund almost for a decade before actually meeting him at the 2016 Athens ETC. So getting to play against him (and share drinks afterwards) was like meeting an old friend. This was to be our first battle on a real tabletop, and I was looking forward to it. On a sidenote, his list and his mate’s Hallvard’s were so outside the box that none of my teammates actually wanted to face them.

I had rated this game as Neutral, meaning that it could go either way, with a good probability of ending up in a draw. The reason for that is double: the magic and shooting of the Orcs was considerable and could easily drop a kraken per turn if dice went their way. Secondly, the entire army was potentially Swiftstride with a movement of 5 or more. Meaning that the Krakens lost their range advantage and could end up in very precarious positions if I wasn’t careful. So I expected to bleed points while grinding the enemy units down.

I must say I was relieved when Hermund didn’t pick the Comet, as it was the one spell that I couldn’t afford to let through: a well placed comet can influence the army’s movement far too much, making me lose momentum. That’s not something that you want to do with an angry mob staring at you.
For the scenario purposes we did not get much of a choice: the Forest in the middle of the table was the only eligible terrain for both of us, which turned the game in a modified version of Hold the Ground, essentially.

We alternated deployment drops as dictated by the scenario, and once three units were down * (Hermund placed his centrally, so as to not reveal his deployment plans), I placed the rest to grab the first turn: against such a list I needed to be the one selecting the fights and I also needed to keep the enemy scorers into their deployment zone for secondary objective purposes.

*Here I should mention that I accidentally misled Herminard: he started by deploying a warmachine, but I pointed out that the first three drops couldn’t be characters or warmachines. It turns out that the warmachine restriction only applies to Marching Columns for some reason, so I’ll use this space to apologize once more for the misplay!

The Viking Orcs (Vikorcs? Orkkings?) went for a denied flank approach: using the hill as an anchor (with a big gnasher unit on top to make sure I didn’t get too close too fast) they extended to my left up to the board edge, with the Git Launchers safely behind the lines. The empty space to my right was then occupied by three goblin chiefs on spiders, making sure that I wouldn’t be able to vanguard past them to threaten the infantry’s flank.

For the first round we got to play team UN which, as I mentioned before, had several players from our Belgian tournament scene. Some of them had participated in our pre-ETC training weekend, so we were a bit worried that we’d get some rematches: that can be good (you know what you did wrong) but also can be bad (your opponent knows what he did wrong/right). In any case, I was lucky enough to play one of the non-Belgian players of team UN: Marcos, a very friendly Spanish player from Madrid.
We got around chatting a bit and it turns out that he plays in the same clubs and events as the players from team Spain and Argentina, so I made a point of not underestimating him!

So all in all a well-rounded vampire list based on a very powerful magic combination, with several single models that could cause headaches to my army. Our deployment was Frontline Clash and the first scenario was to be Capture the Flags, which meant that I’d have to try and go behind enemy lines to reach the zombie units that would probably hang out in the back.

Going into the game, I had estimated this match as favorable for my Dread Elves: with no shooting and a vampire lord that is not a particularly good fighter, all I had to worry about was the magic. When I saw the spells that my opponent chose I kind of reconsidered my initial optimistic outlook: He had all the snipes (Touch of the Reaper, Hasten the Hour, Marked for Doom), and then Grave Calls, Pentagram of Pain, Breath of Corruption and Spectral Blades! The only upside was that the dreaded Necromantic staff was nowhere to be seen, so I’d only have to worry about two invocations.

We rolled for sides and I won, opting for the side that had a small hill just outside the deployment zone. I figured that it would be a decent place to park a Kraken or a flying monster and threaten the advance of the varkolaks and the such.Marcos seized the opportunity to drop everything for first turn. This gave me a lot of options in counter-deploying, and I organized my battle line with two things in mind:

a) I had to keep the Barrow King away from my Blades of Nabh. I had faced this build in a tournament before and he managed to munch through all of my core infantry without so much as a scratch. With the scenario being flags, I’d have to try and avoid that at all costs.
b) I needed to avoid the Varkolaks going behind my lines with their 28” initial move.

My vanguard move managed to bring the middle dark raiders within range for frenzy-baiting the Vampire spawn. These were turned sideways and too far away from the generals Ld, but they still managed to pass the test on their own. Then the Barrow King declared a charge on the offending fast cavalry. Not willing to draw him near my lines that fast, they fled and got away.On the flanks the varkolaks maneuvered carefully, staying out of charge range of my fast support. The vampire’s unit surged forward, with the Vampire Spawn in close support. The Dire Wolves moved up and redirected my two central krakens.
In the magic phase I had to use all of my dice to stop the Grave Calls on the Kraken. This allowed my opponent to get off a boosted Hasten the Hour on my corsairs, but the Pegasusprince saved the wound allocated on him. Finally, the vampire raised a new unit of zombies and then raised around 10 skeletons from his unit.

One of the krakens took the dire wolf bait, while the rest of the army maneuvered into position. The fleeingDark Raiders rallied and moved up to block the Barrow King and the Vampire’s unit. I then set up a trap using my Manticore as bait; I moved him forward towards the Vampire Spawn, but keeping the Blades of Nabh in a position where he’d only get 10 attacks from the spawn due to the unit’s alignment. On the flanks I continued denying the varkolaks any space, while the remaining krakens moved up, one occupying the hill, thus zoning the Dark Coach.Finally, the Prince relocated towards the center and the corsairs did an about turn and moved backwards towards my deployment zone.
In the magic phase I only managed to get a Deceptive Glamour on the vampiric spawn, lowering their agility. The kraken predictably killed all of the wolves.

The biggest T9A gaming event of the year has come and gone, and everyone who attended will tell you we had a wonderful time. In the following blog posts I will try to take you on the same journey, by recounting the tales of the Belgian ETC team, and my Dark Elves’ exploits in particular.

For those of you who do not follow the tournament circuit that closely, the ETC stands for European Team Championship, and it is a yearly get-together of some of the most competent generals from all over the world. The tournament lasts 6 rounds, and these are fought between teams of 8 people representing a nation. The scores of all the games are added each round and this gives a total team score between 0 and 160. To prevent any team from escaping too far by crushing weaker opposition, each round’s score is “capped” at 100 points, meaningthat the worst result a team can get is 60 and the best is 100 points. Now that the T9A rules have been stable for some time the level of competition hasn’t stopped rising: all of the teams had very well constructed lists, and several players from each team have been consistently scoring well in local and international tournaments.

As far as team Belgium is concerned we aligned the crème de la crème of our gaming scene, players who had distinguished themselves in team and single events over the 2018-2019 season. These were as follows:

@gregor , our trusted captain and multiple ETCveteran, aligning an army of fast Daemonic Legions based on Fiends and Succubi with poisoned attacks.@PrinceCharming with aggressive Ogre Khans: Double hunters, double Aurochs, triple Kin-Eater, plus change.@IHDarklord with Undying Dynasties. He played a list similar to everyone else’s but at least he can claim he was on the bandwagon waaay before anyone else noticed it!@Mallak with an infantry-based Orc and Goblin list aligning no less than 72 Gnashers, 28 Feral Orc Eadbashers, 25 Iron orcs, along with double Git Launchers and Pyro magic.@valmir and his Vermin Swarms. Fun fact: Valmir tested the entire year a list with Vermin Daemon, double Dreadmills and the such, then 2 months before the event decided that people had adapted to the netlist and went to the drawing board once more! He probably gets the prize for the most innovative VS list, although the competition was not exactly stiff.@Artur , our resident Highborn Elf player. He lined up a list with some very heavy shooting and magic capability, designed to take on difficult matches and not yield too many points or even come out on top.@strauss , a new addition to the team and the best Infernal Dwarf player in Belgium (on a totally unrelated note, he also happens to be the only one ). His list combined all of the usual ID suspects: Kadims, Titan, Onyx Core, Pyromancy with the Icon of the Inferno. His personal touch was the Rocket Battery as well as a block of Sword and Board Citadel Guard.

Before the tournament we spent a certain amount of time theorizing and estimating how our armies would fare against the opposition. Doing so for 280 lists is a daunting task, but it was made easier by the fact that most factions were represented by one or two list archetypes.
For example, most Ogre Khans lists involved double Mammoth Hunters, double Aurochs and a deathstar with BSB and the ubiquitous Shaman Master. All of the KoE lists were almost identical (PegasusDuke with Might/Judgment combo, Druidism support, some questing knights and variable core) .
When doing estimations one thing became apparent: where my team mates were estimating a potential score (for example, against X I can score 10 points minimum), I found that I could only give an estimation of the probability of winning. (ex. Against Y I have an 60% chance of winning). Thus became apparent what we called the Unstable condition: with such an aggressive… [Read More]

A friend of mine had a wonderful idea while drawing some parallels between the Dread elves book and the Army he wanted. Instead of going for the normal dark, moody dread elf look, he decided to go in a very different direction by incorporating Roman style troops. He came to this conclusion, I assume, because of the similarities of the Greek Monsters of Tales and the Monsters in the book, then pointed a finger in the Roman directions. Personally I loved the idea, and even more so because he introduced me to Victrix Models.

The Models themselves are highly detailed, and come with a LOT of options when it comes to standards and other such bits. Even after putting together a full command+ for a single 25 man unit, there we still a TON of bits left over, which always make a modeler and gamer happy.

I mean look at all those heads! All of them are extremely detailed, and have a matching cape to adorn the back of the fully armored model. Was extremely nice to see from a company. Unfortunately there is only one sprue like this in the pack, and they dont seem to sell them separately as far as im aware.

I have some Vikings on the way from Victrix, and I'll be doing a video and a post here about them as well,

After the first four rounds, we’d had a couple of big wins, one marginal win and one marginal loss as a team: this put us still in first place, and in a position to fight for the top spot. Our opponents were yet another French team, one made up by ETC veterans: They had brought Orcs and Goblins, Dread Elves (a brilliant list with 6 chariots, an altar and two krakens!), Dwarven Holds (Shooting MSU variety), Sylvan Elves (full shooting with Wild Huntsman counterpunch) and, finally Vermin Swarm.

Followers of this blog might know by now how much I hate facing the Vermin Swarm. It doesn’t help that our resident Vermin Swarm player is one of the best Belgian players of all time, one who consistently ends up in the top3 of tournaments, from the 7th edition Warhammer days until now. Having played against him several times I’ve learned that elves hate the Vermin, but on the other hand I had a secret hope that not all vermin swarm players would be as talented as Valmir when playing the army. Said hope was shattered when I saw who the player I’d be facing for our last game was: Thibault @ANKOR , also known as the French Mercenary, is a well known face in the European tournament circuit, as the former captain of team France ETC and a very able general.

So your run of the mill Vermin Swarm tournament list, with all the tricks: Vermin Daemon for reliable Discipline bubble, Divination magic and an almost unkillable general, the Pendulum unit to keep things honest, two Dreadmills to get points from the big targets, two catapults for whittling down the R3 elves, and a smattering of scoring and chaff. The objective for this round was Secure Target, and we got Counterthrust deployment.

For spells, I went with the usual Ice and Fire/Crippling Fatigue and Grave Calls/Breath of Corruption, while my opponent picked the VS hereditary, Fate’s Judgment, Unerring Strike, Scrying and Stars Align for the Vermin Daemon. The Plague priest took Pentagram of Pain and Hand of Glory.

Going into the game I knew that coordination of the attack was key to standing a chance: if I allowed the dreadmills and the magic users enough time to kill my big targets one by one I’d go down fast. I won the roll for sides and gave my opponent the side with the impassable terrain, placing my Secure Target token to the far left: that side of the board had enough covering terrain to ensure that if my adversary wanted to go for it he’d have to give me a lot of hiding spots. Thibaut countered this by placing his token diametrically opposite, right next to the eastern table edge.

We started alternating deployment drops: the vermin swarm used the Disciples and the vanguardingfootpads to deny me space in the left and the center respectively. I used my medusas and dark riders to bide my time, not revealing my intentions. The vermin did the same, but then I noticed an opening: the Plague Disciples had been deployed facing towards my opponent’s table edge to avoid getting frenzy baited on the first turn. Due to the scenario this meant that I was able to deploy my Yema Acolytes at exactly 20” away, giving me a 10+ first turn charge and an opportunity to take out a very annoying combat element. So I went for it, dropping the entire army in the process:
I placed one Blade unit on either side, careful to prevent any easy firing lanes to the catapults (they had been placed already). The krakens and manticore went off-center to the left, and the general with Corsairs deployed dead center so as to be able to threaten either side of the board. My opponent replied to this by completely abandoning the left flank, and deployed in a denied flank using the impassable terrain to protect his flank.

This approach meant that I was all but guaranteed a draw objective-wise as long as I managed to deal with the disciples early on. But storming the Vermin battle line and winning the secondary would be a totally different story. Predictably, the Footpads vanguarded forward to block my prince’s vanguard, and I moved up with both fast cavalry units.TURN 1 – Dread Elves

My first action of the game was to declare that Dark Acolyte charge against the Disciples: they made it in, while a Kraken forced the central footpads to flee due to Terror. With the disciples locked in combat my army pushed up aggressively, careful to stay 26” away from the rightmost dreadmill. The dark raiders to the right spotted a mistake in the vermin deployment and moved… [Read More]

Right after wrapping up the first day of the tournament, Kiri and friends had organized dinner and drinks in the center of Luxembourg: so the following morning we weren’t exactly fresh! It certainly didn’t help that our opponents were some of the best players in Europe: TG Play is the team of Frederick and friends, bringing together three of Germany’s best players along with two of team Switzerland’s best players!

As you may imagine, our predictions for that round were quite pessimistic as all the usual suspects were present: full shooting/magic Vermin Swarm, an EoSgunline, full construct UD, Frederick’s 16-unit WDGMSU army and, finally, Kingdom of Equitaine led by the usual Might Duke. It was the latter that I’d have to face, in a round where the secondary objective was Breakthrough!

The deployment we got was Encircle, which is always tricky against KoE: luckily, I won the roll for sides and elected to give the big flanks to the knights, kind of forcing them to pick a side instead of plonking everything right in the middle of the board.

Spell selection was the usual for me (Ice and Fire/Crippling Fatigue and Breath of Corruption/Grave Calls) while my opponent got Evocation for his Crown of the Wizard King (= Spectral Blades) and a mix of buffs and damage spells from Divination (Scrying/Know thy Enemy/Fate’s Judgment/Unerring Strike).

I think that the most challenging part of this battle was deployment: my DE army is designed to rush the enemy and break through the lines with superior force concentration, before the adversary’s support elements can move into position to help out. But that’s exactly what KoE excel at doing, too! The main difference was that the knights had enough staying power to ensure that my Krakens wouldn’t be able to punch through before the support (Read: Might Duke and Green Knight) could come to the lances’ aid.
As a plus, the Questing Knights and the Duke both projected a huge threat zone thanks to the Questing Oath. Simply put, if I allowed Xavier to kill my redirectors early on I’d be in trouble. If I committed my units in the fight and failed to break the knights, I’d be in serious trouble. Finally, I had 3 scoring units that could simply not fight 2+/6++ knights, could be frenzy-baited into said fights and had little to no armor. With all this facts in mind, I elected to not place my entire army when my opponent gave me the opportunity, but to play the deployment game instead:

The knights had four units that could rapidly redeploy, and placed them one after the other near the middle, so as to avoid giving away too much information. I replied with my fast support, with the same plan in mind. At that point my opponent dropped all 3 of his lances to my right flank and elected to force me to play first. And that’s where things got complicated for me: normally, getting the first turn with an army as fast as mine is a boon since I’m able to close the distance and can assure that my chaff won’t be killed before they redirect. But here I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to directly confront the KoE, since it would give them a lot of time to reposition and get my softer units if they won the initial fight. On the flipside, giving the first turn to cavalry that can move 16” means risking getting charged on turn 2, which can be worse.
So I did what I thought was best: I took my time-out (in team tournaments you’re entitled to a 3-minute discussion with a teammate/coach once per game) and let someone else decide for me! I ended up deploying in a cautious manner, one would say against my nature:

So the scoring units as far away from the action as possible, the ManticoreBSB nearby to keep the Pegasus knights honest, then my redirectors and heavy hitters in the center to try to prevent the knights from relocating towards the scorers.
The knights prayed, meaning that the first turn would depend on a dice roll. I won the roll, and forced the KoE to play first!

TURN 1 – Kingdom of Equitaine
The knights didn’t take the fast cavalry baits that I had set up for them, opting instead to push up my right flank, and keeping the Yeomen close to the general and far from my units, to my disappointment: as long as the fast cavalry was in range to redirect my kraken, I would have a hard time committing.… [Read More]

For the second game of the day we would be facing team Portugal. These guys are actually very active players in France (but half of them are of Portuguese origin, hence the name). Last year we had the pleasure of facing them at the first Benelux Cup, which they won, and at LBM where we took our revenge and beat them! This time they had lined up five very competitive lists, and I got to play @Paulo with his Daemonic Legions.

Despite all the rage about the Omen/Lemure/Hoarder/Hope Harvester combo, I find daemons quite fun to play against. Paulo had all the afore-mentioned tools, but he had also put his personal touch by bringing the Courtesan of Cibaresh:

So overall a list centered around four big blocks, all reasonably fast thanks to the army-wide swiftstride of the DL, plus a scouting Courtesan and some flying redirectors. The deployment this time was Counterthrust and the secondary objective King of the Hill. My opponent won the roll for sides, and declared the Water feature as his piece of terrain for the secondary, while I picked the hill to the left.
His Omen picked Hand of Heaven, Smite the Unbeliever, Cleansing Fire and the DL Hereditary, while the Courtesan picked Raven’s Wing and the DL Hereditary. I took the same spells I’d end up taking all weekend long: Breath of Corruption/Grave Calls and Ice and Fire/Crippling Fatigue.
Knowing that I’d get a considerable bonus for the first turn, and also that we’d be fighting for control of the western part of the board, I used my Dark Raiders to push the daemons back in deployment, and then dropped for first turn. As expected, the daemons deployed right across from my army.

TURN 1 – Dread Elves
With a Hope Harvester and Thaumaturgy magic with +2 to cast, I didn’t want to waste any time: the two Dark Raider units moved up and blocked the entire DL battle line, allowing my krakens/Manticore and the Pegasus to move up aggressively and take the hill for some rerollable charges on the following turn.A medusa and the Dark Acolytes started an outflanking maneuver on the weak flank, while the Yema Acolytes approached the courtesan for some magic:
In the magic phase the Breath of Corruption was cast and resulted in a single wound on the Courtesan. The Grave Calls was dispelled, and the Ice and Fire dealt a single wound to the hoarders.

TURN 1 – Daemonic Legion

My opponent surprised me by opting not to charge the dark raider screens! This was a good call, as it would be chaffing me up as much as it did him. The units shuffled a bit, the Succubi moved back but generally the rest held their ground and the Omen joined the Lemures. Magic started with a Hand of Heaven on the nearest kraken failing to wound, then a casting of the Hereditary spell on the manticore was dispelled. A second attempt at the Kraken on the hill resulted in two wounds. Finally, the Raven’s Wing was dispelled.
In the shooting phase the Harvester took aim at the Blades of Nabh closest to the Lemures, and managed a massive 28 hits! Thankfully, the to-hit penalties from range and cover were enough to limit the damage: the salvo only resulted in two dead witches!

TURN 2 – Dread Elves
I feared that the Blades wouldn’t survive a second volley from the Harvester, I declared some charges: First, the rightmost Dark Raiders had to get out of the way. So they charged the Fiends’ flank, opening the way for my rightmost Kraken and the nearby Blades to charge the Lemures. The PegasusPrince and the wounded kraken spotted the Furies right in front of them and charged them: the Kraken had a 9+ overrun into the succubi. Finally, the Blades right behind the kraken also declared a long charge into the furies: if they made it in, they would use that combat as a stepping stone to get into the Fiends right behind. All of the chargers made it in except for the long Blade Charge. The second unit of Dark Raiders continued to block the Courtesan, and the Medusa to the right moved up to redirect the Hoarders away from the Lemure combat.The two acolyte units were now staring at the Daemon flanks.

In magic I managed to cast Crippling Fatigue on the Lemure block on a high roll, which my opponent had to let through. He then dispelled the Grave Calls against the Courtesan, and the Breath of Corruption was cast but I totally forgot to use it!

We started combat with the Omen/Lemure/Kraken/Blade fight: The blades went berserk against the Omen and dealt 6 wounds, instantly… [Read More]

The past weekend I had the pleasure of attending one of the biggest and most well-runtournaments in the greaterregion, the Luxembourg Bash Masters. This was a 5-player, 5-game team tournament, run over an entire weekend, with 20 teams attending, for a total of 100 wargamers! Last year was the first time I made the 2,5h trip to Luxembourg for this event, and it was a great experience that you can read all about in this blog. Our team performed very well and we secured the first place, becoming the LBM champions!

This year the opposition was of a very high level, as you can yourselves notice by the lists of the event (link). Between the teams we’d find two teams from the Netherlands, two German teams, two Italian teams, as well as some of the most well-known tournament players from France, arranged in three powerful teams. Belgium is always well represented due to the geographical proximity of Luxembourg, and this time we had no less than four teams! Add to that other French players, Team Norway,Team Switzerland and last but certainly not least Team Luxembourg and you have an amazing mix of players, gaming culture and ethnic diversity that guarantees a very enjoyable yet challenging weekend.

First and foremost, I need to applaud the efforts of @kiri and his team of dedicated wargamers who organized this event. Every year it keeps getting better and better, with very good pre-tournament communication, a perfectly run event in itself with well-read and always available judges, top-notch bar/catering service and even a Saturday night social program that allowed us to chat a bit more with the other teams and also have a great time with our team mates. They always deliver great events, and they are the best guys to hang out with. One of the reasons why I am saying all that is because they are also one of the candidates for organizing the ETC 2020, and I think they would do an amazing job in running the event. So there, if you are one of the decision-makers about this, don’t hesitate a single minute to give them their vote!

Back to the tournament itself now! As is customary, here is the list that I took to the event:

So a list combining high mobility, and featuring some of my favorite models/units in the entire Dread Elf line: the Medusae, the Blades of Nabh and the flying characters. Before the tournament, and in order to accelerate the play speed of the list, I had decided to drop all shooting from the list. This is an army that requires very good movement and is quite unforgiving when it comes to positioning errors, but is also very rewarding when it works as designed! You can find more discussion about lists in my army-building thread (link).

Our first opponents were some of the top contenders for this year’s team France for ETC, team Obelix (AKA “les enfants du Sud”), bringing together some of the best players in France. I had previously had a great and very tactical game against @benj at last year’s ETC, so I was very happy that we’d be playing them in the first round. The pairing process pitted me against Vincent @vince3310 , and his Infernal Dwarves.

So in essence a pyro gunline with very good anti-push elements, good redirectors and resilient mobile scoring. The first round secondary objective was going to be Hold the Ground (predetermined and round-dependent) and we got randomly assigned a map-pack table designed for Counterthrust. My opponent picked the side of the table with a sizeable hill,… [Read More]

For the second round of the tournament I’d get to play against one of my favorite opponents in the French/Belgian scene, none other than @Tartignolle, the organizer of the Myreille Strategic Tournaments that I have enjoyed attending over the couple past years! Tanguy is a very good player, and most of all a very great guy to play against! What was a bit more disconcerting was his ability to write very effective army lists that go against any kind of trend and surprise his adversaries!

He had brought the “weak” Ogre Khans, and a list that would prove to be a nightmare toface!

So lets see: 99 Bow Shots, 2 (6x6) Catapults, 2 Cannons, Pyromancy magic, and six anti-push models that are immune to stomps! I was very worried about this matchup, especially since the scenario we’d be playing was Capture the flags.

Thankfully, he won the roll for picking sides, which gave me the opportunity to deploy my entire army for the first turn! That meant that I’d be getting one less turn of cannon fire and the opportunity to put some cover between my monsters and the cannons!
I deployed wide, keeping the Krakens and Dragon relatively central and my infantry units packed, so as to avoid the giants rushing in to kill them. The ogres responded by hugging the long table edge, with a cannon and a Scratapult on each flank and the giants evenly spaced , two on the flanks and one right in the middle. The trappers put all sorts of traps into the various terrain pieces, and the hunter scouted up my right flank, right where my scoring Dread Knights were.

With limited options available, I pushed forward: both krakens moved into the forest, followed by a medusa. The Dragon relocated to the left flank, putting the hill and the impassable terrain between itself and the cannons. The dark raiders on the left moved up aggressively, tempting the Scratapult to charge them, so as to pull the beast closer to my Dragon. The infantry stayed 24” away from the bows, not eager to get a first turn volley without incurring any penalties.Finally, to the right the dark raiders moved up to pin down the hunter, with the Yema acolytes and Dread Knights in close support.
In the magic phase I got the “1” card, and powered through a boosted Grave Calls on the hunter: unfortunately, only one wound was suffered by the ogre character!

The ogres took the dark raider baits: the ones opposite the hunter stood and took it, while the left ones fled from the Scratapult towards my lines, hoping to pull it out of position. The giant to my right caused a terror check on the yema acolytes, who failed and fled, leaving the Dread Knights somewhat isolated. On the left, the scrapling trappers pushed the dark raiders further back, through my lines, and the scratapult failed the charge, moving a disappointing 2”.
The rest ofthe ogre army maneuvered a bit, not really hard pressed to engage my units. The scrapling trappers moved up the hill and inside the forest, putting traps on both terrain pieces.
Magic sawthe Shaman try to fry the kraken with a pyroclastic flow, but it failed to do any damage: I then dispelled burning embers on the dancers of Yema. Shooting went better for the ogres: the right cannon took aim at the rightmost krakenand scored a hit, causing four wounds! A scratapult managed an indirect hit onthe mddle spearelves, killing five of them. Finally, the second cannon, that had moved past the impassable terrain towards the left, failed its shot against the dragon.
In combat the Hunter dealt with the Dark Raiders with ease, but not before suffering a wound from the riders’ attacks.

With a Kraken already half-dead and a couple of units fleeing, I knew I had to push forward as fast as possible: the Dread Knights charged the victorious Hunter,the Dragon declared a long charge against the Scratapult and both medusas charged the scrapling trappers near them: the ones in the forest fled but didn’t go far enough, allowing the medusa to catch them and reform on top of the hill, with very good views of the cannon, the Shaman’s unit and the nearest Scraplings. The dragon failed its 11+ charge on the scratapult, and moved 5” forward.
The medusa breaking through to the right was all the signal the rest of the army needed: The left acolytes moved up to block the middle giant,… [Read More]

2ndTower Conquest – a tournament report
Greetings, once again! Welcome to the second installment of my 2018 Dread Elf adventures.
On the last weekend of October I participated in what was to be the best T9A singles tournament in Belgium, and probably one of the best in the world: The 2nd Tower Conquest! Organized by friends and T9A team mates that are members of the Ebony Tower club in Ath, this tournament attracted no less than 42 players, a record for our small country, with another 10 or so being in a waiting list and finally declined because of space/infrastructure issues.
So picture this: the event takes place inside an actual Medieval tower, in the heart of the small city of Ath in southern Belgium . The organizers had thought of everything: lists and rounds posted online before the tournament, a nice and comfortable tournament schedule, great food for Lunch, drinks on demand at your table and, finally, lots and lots of prizes! I cannot congratulate them enough, and will start this report by saying that I strongly recommend this tournament to any player that would be within driving distance of the city of Ath.

Continuing my foray into everything Dread Elf, I took the same list as I’d taken in the Challenge tournament last month: with no time to test anything else, I went with what I knew!

For the first game of the day, I was to fight Cedric, who came all the way from France with a couple of his mates! He brought a very old-school looking Saurian Ancients army which reminded me of the first real army I ever owned, the 5thedition WHFB Lizardmen!

So an all-around force with very good ranged output due to magic, two mobile threats in the Taurosaur and the Warlord on foot, and a couple of durable blocks. We would play Frontline Clash and Breakthrough. My opponent picked Pyromancy for his Cuatl, and got Fireball, Pyroclastic Flow, Burning Embers and Cascading fire, while the Skink got Healing Waters and the Summer Growth. In return, I picked Ice and Fire, Crippling Fatigue, Pentagram of Pain and Breath of Corruption for the acolytes.

Going into the game, I knew I had to rush forward in order to limit the amount of shooting and magic that the krakens would have to weather, but I’d have to do so while covering my advance and denying any easy charges to the Taurosaur. After deploying my fast troops in a balanced manner, I dropped the rest for the first turn, placing both krakens and the dancers centrally, with medusa/dark raider/legionnaire detachments on either flank and the dragon ready to move on either side of the hill for second turn charges. My opponent went for a denied flank approach, using the Temple Guard to protect the center and weighing heavily his right flank.

While this approach was valid, it gave me an opening: the Skink Hunters were in a position where they’d block the Serpent Warriors if I placed my dark raiders in front of them, meaning that I’d be able to push aggressively with no fear of retaliation for a turn or two, from either the Warriors or the Warlord.

With the above in mind, I pushed the dark raiders forward, aligning the rest of the left flank contingent for counter-charges if my opponent decided to charge the dark raiders instead of shooting them The dragon parked on the hill with clear view of the entire Saurian battleline, eager to use the reroll for charges on the following turn. Both krakens moved as far forward as possible, while the Dancers also made a full march move, in a calculated risk: they’d have to take the Spearbacks’ shooting to the face with no penalties, but their huge charge range meant that I’d be rid of the Spearbacks on turn 2 no matter what.… [Read More]

Howdy ho Ninth Agers!
I hope you all had a terrific Halloween.
I give to you another insane romp between veteran gamers @Ulthred and @Nemeroth
Disclaimer: this game was damnsome ridiculous and I hold no responsibility for readers loss of hair, finger nails or minds.
Enjoy:Living on the Edge

So after two wins, I was up in the top tables and would be facing Yann @'Shizuu' and his beautifully painted Undying Dynasties. You might remember his army from a previous battle report, but now he has completed the painting and it looks amazing(Asian/Japanese theme where Sphinxes are Dragons).

So a list that has a bit of everything, good long ranged shooting and magic, someredirectors and a couple of good anti-push elements in the form of the sphinxes and the chariot unit.

We got to play Frontline Clash and Breakthrough: I picked sides, giving the UD the side with an impassable terrain potentially breaking the battle line in half, and my opponent opted to drop his entire army once he’d seen where my (scoring) Dread Knights were going. The UDdeployment was heavy on the left flank, with the Sphinxes guarding the one flank and the other one protected by the table edge, and a unit of shabtis on each side. This allowed me to pit all of my monsters AND the acolytes against the two sphinxes, safe from the left Shabtis, at least for the firstturn. I took a lot of pictures before we started the game, so here you go:

The Sand Stalkers saw the opportunity to use their gaze at the Dread Knights and moved up aggressively. The sphinxes spotted my fast cavalry near the wood and one of them moved up towards it,with the other and the pharaoh’s unit moving slightly forward.

With Unerring Strike out of range for the first turn, the magic phase was low impact, aided by my opponent failing a couple of 3d6 casting rolls! Shooting was aimed first at the fast cavalry to the right, killing all of them with a combination of the Sphinx’s Breath Weapon and the bows of the Scouts. The Shabtis targeted the yema Acolytes and felled a couple. Finally, the Sand Stalkers couldonly wound the Dread Knights once, killing a knight but now comfortably within charge range!

My opponenthad given me an opening that I tried to exploit: the sphinx that had used its breath weapon presented its flank to my Acolytes: with 11 poisoned attacks plus charge + flank theodds of killing the beast were too good to pass up. They promptly failed their charge, though! The dread knights charged downhill on the Sand Stalkers, making it in.
In remaining moves, I pushed both Krakens aggressively towards the rightmost Sphinx, threatening the advance of the other monster, too. The Dragon followed suit, screened from shooting by the two monsters’ footprints. A medusa was thrown right in front ofthe chariots and pharaoh, buying me a turn.

In magic,the Yema Acolytes cast Breath of Corruption on themselves, to deter the sphinx from charging them (that would have been an ill-advised charge anyway; with poison and 4+ aegis they’d probably hold that charge and allow my Kraken the countercharge).
The Dread Knights made short work of the Sand Stalkers and reformed to face towards the center.

My adversary had a lot of possible charges this turn, although half of them were traps. He saw right through them, though: the chariots crashed into the medusa -killing it without breaking a sweat- , the left Shabtis declared a charge into the Dread Knights which I promptly fled. The sphinxes elected not to charge, repositioning instead: the right one failed its march test, meaning that it would have to take the kraken charge on the following turn! The scorpion appeared and moved rightin front of the Dancer unit.
In magic the Hierophant managed to cast Scrying on the rightmost sphinx, but all theother spells were dispelled. Shooting resulted in another two Yema Acolytes dying.

The Prince sounded the attack, and a good chunk of the army charged: the dancers charged into the Sand Scorpion, the left Kraken and Dragon combo charged the farthest Sphinx, but only the kraken made it in, with a very nice overrun path into the chariot unit. The second kraken and the unharmed Acolyte unit combo charged the second sphinx.
In remaining moves the Dread Knights rallied and the infantry moved up more aggressively, now that both sphinxes were tied up. I had to push my last yema acolyte forward… [Read More]

So, after a very big win on round 1 and a couple of hot dogs kindly offered by Pink Horde's BBQ, I moved up the tables to find Gregory @Gregus and his Empire of Sonnstahl!
He had brought a fairly static gunline, clearly inspired by the German ETC list of this year and geared towards team play: he and some of his mates will be attending team tournaments and his role is the defensive one!

So a true gunline with around 120 S4 shots, two cannons and backed up by no less than three mages, with a total of 9 spells!
The objective was Hold the Center and the deployment type was Refused Flank.
Going into this game, I knew that I was at a disadvantage due to the deployment type, that would allow my opponent to put more space between the two battle lines. On the flip side, this allows one to predict more or less where the bunk of the enemy forces will be sitting, due to space limitations.

So when I won the roll for sides, I opted for the configuration that a) placed a forest right in the middle of the table, great cover against cannons and small arms fire, b) had an impassable terrain limiting enemy deployment even further. My opponent didn't elect to deploy his entire army in one go, which gave me the opportunity to drop all for the first turn!

I went for a central deployment with the 3 monsters tightly packed and heading for that forest, the right flank held by the dancers of yema and some legionnaires while the left flank had all the fast troops and my remaining scorers. The reasoning behind this was to put pressure early on, keeping the enemy away from the center and forcing him to split his shooting while I advanced. My adversary deployed his shooting troops literally hugging the table edge, using the Steam Tank to protect his left flank and the flagellants to anchor the right.

All three monsters rushed to the forest's cover, both krakens combining their footprints to keep the Dragon Safe from either cannon. The dark raiders spotted a blind spot next to the leftmost reiters and moved there threatening to charge on the following turn. The legionnaires both advanced cautiously: these didn't need to move too aggressively, as I was going to need them for scoring early objective points. To the right, the Dancers of Yema were assigned to Steam Tank duty: these would have to keep the tank busy from turns 2 to 4, while the rest of the army pounced on the relatively soft shooting battery.

In magic I attempted to cast magic on both the cannon and the Reiters to the right who were too far away from the general and bsb, but no wounds were caused.

My opponent responded to my baits by simply ignoring them: the flagellants moved up to intercept my monsters, the tank just pivoted to get good firing lanes to the krakens and the leftmost reiters retreated behind the Flagellants to a spot where all of their possible assailants would have to suffer a stand and shoot reaction if they wanted to get into combat.

In the magic phase I had to let through Altered Sight on the cannon, as well as a Fireball on the kraken that dealt a single wound, so as to dispel the Unerring strike that inevitably targeted a kraken. In the shooting phase the cannon hit my left kraken and did maximum damage, killing it outright! The steam tank thankfully failed to hit the second kraken, and the rest of the shooting amounted to 4 dead legionnaires from the right unit, as well as a couple of dead dark raiders.

The casualties were mounting fast, but I was still too far to declare any significant charges against the gunline. So I sent the dancers of yema charging into the Steam Tank, to hold it in place for a couple of turns. Now free from the threat of the Steam Cannon, I was able to push the Kraken and Dragon forward, still staying within the safety of the forest but inching closer to the enemy. Both Medusas and a unit of Dark Riders moved into positions from where they'd be able to charge on turn 3, and the same… [Read More]

Greetings, fellow gamers! I’m just back from one of Belgium’s biggest singles tournaments,run by no other than Pink Horde and @IHDarklord, and thought I’d share my experience with you:

Pink Horde is a gaming club near the French border of Belgium, who has been very active in promoting T9A amongst other games. Their yearly fantasy gaming event has been going on for more than 10 years, and last year's echoes from friends were so positive that I just had to attend: I wasn't disappointed, since the tournament was a blast! The venue was big and very bright with huge windows on every side allowing us to witness the rare sight of Belgian late-September sun rays, the tables all equipped with battle mats and a combination of 2D and 3D terrain for maximum gaming comfort and immersion, and most of the armies were beautifully painted!

The tournament managed to gather a crowd of 32 people, including fellow ETC team mates but also an array of players of all levels from all over Belgium. For my first game, I got to play a Pink Horde member, Tino, @badman341980 who is a fantasy wargaming veteran, dusting off his WoDG:

So a monster mash list that can be deceptively hard-hitting, especially when one underestimates the hitting power of Agility 6+ chosen with Great Weapons.
My opponent chose Whispers of the Veil, Hasten the Hour, Ancestral Aid and Touch of the Reaper for his spells, and the magic giant got Breath of Corruption.
In return, I picked Breath of Corruption/Grave Calls and Ice and Fire/Crippling Fatigue for my acolytes.

We played Counterthrust and Capture the Flags.
We exchanged a few drops and then my opponent placed his entire army for the first turn. My opponent split his army into two squads: each had a unit of fallen, a giant and a unit of chosen. On the left flank they were supported by the Behemoth whereas on the right/center they were accompanied by the Sloth Warriors. I replied by weighing my right flank and the center, leaving only a unit of acolytes, a dark raider unit, a Medusa and a Kraken to keep things honest and prevent my opponent from performing a pincer maneuver early on.

TURN 1 - WoDG

Wary of my Kraken on the left, Tino approached cautiously, careful not to give me an easy charge. The middle also inched forward, using the impassable terrain as a flank anchor. In the magic phase the Sorcerer target the Dancers of Yema with a boosted Hasten the Hour, killing 3 of them. The Hellfire was dispelled and I let through the Breath of Corruption on the giant.

The Dancers of Yema, on top of the hill, declared a long charge into the left unit of Fallen: if they made it in, that unit would probably be dealt with and they'd be deep within enemy lines to case all kinds of trouble. They failed, despite the reroll. On my left flank I used the dark Raiders to block the advance of both monsters and the chosen of wrath, which allowed me to move the spears and the kraken at the 12" mark from the redirectors. The Acolytes of Yema outflanked the monster contingent, while in the center the Kraken and Dragon moved closer to the big block.

In magic I only managed to cast the Breath of Corruption, dealing one wound on the left giant. The Medusa cast Deceptive Glamour on the right Fallen, giving the Dragon movement 9.

TURN 2 - WoDG

The chosen of wrath charged myredirectors, and killed them to an elf easily. Not willing to get flanked by poisoned Acolytes, the Behemoth moved backwards towards the hill, while the giant moved past their arc of sight and threatened the flank of my Kraken. In the center the Sloth Warriors moved up a bit, keeping both the Giant and the Wrath chosen in close support.
Magic was once again focused on the Dancers of Yema: a boosted Hellfire managed to drop 9 more, leaving only 5 of them remaining! Then the Hasten the Hour killed three Dread Knights, relegating them to redirector duty!

I spotted an opening and took it: the Sloth Warriors were in such a position that if I charged with my monsters, only the Giant could countercharge them on the following turn: I combo charged with the Dancers of Yema and both the Kraken and the Dragon, but only the monsters made it in. The right Legionnaires declared a charge on the fallen but failed, while the left kraken and Legionnaires combo charged the left fallen. Only the… [Read More]